It is 2024, but Nina Drayton is still haunted by events twenty years earlier when she gave evidence following the drowning of her older sister, Tamara, in the south of France. Her evidence led to the conviction of a local girl, Josie Jackson, but, now, the verdict is being challenged and Nina is not entirely sure that her evidence was the truth, the whole truth.

Back in 2004, Nina is the youngest daughter of Evelyn Drayton and her brother, Blake is assured of, or at least believes he is entitled to, the attentions of Josie Jackson and Hannah Bailey, who live at the poorer end of the Cote d’Azur village. The family have inherited money and like to party.

As story moves from 2004 to 2024 and back again, the truth about what happened to Tamara gradually unfolds. It’s a complicated story, added to by a commentary from an amateur Instagram crime reporter and a documentary film team revisiting what happened. The time shifts can be confusing and you have to keep track of a range of characters.

As in her previous novel, The Girls of Summer, Katie Bishop writes well about young people and the Mediterranean setting and, of course, in the end the truth will come out in an explosive ending. It’s a good story, highly readable and well written.